'Inside Man' may look like just another heist movie but there's a difference: It’s Spike Lee's very first heist movie and it represents the first time the formerly indie filmmaker has made an all-out Hollywood action flick. The result is the tightest, most suspenseful filmmaking Lee has done since 'Do the Right Thing.' Denzel Washington, Lee's most frequent star and alter ego (whenever Lee isn't on screen himself), stars as New York police detective Keith Frazier who is assigned to conduct a hostage negotiation with a crafty team of Wall Street area bank robbers. But Frazier is also a lightning rod for the particular stress and tensions of New York City, and that’s what makes this film a true Spike Lee joint. During the all-day siege, Frazier's authority gets tested by the heist's mastermind crook Dalton Russell (played by Brit Clive Owen), but Frazier also finds his capability questioned by N.Y.P.D. bureaucracy and some racist attitudes expressed by a few white colleagues. (Willem Dafoe portrays the most skeptical cop.) The film is made up of a series of personality clashes rather than the usual high-tech burglary methods. It is the intricate relationship of greed, egotism and municipal power that fascinates Lee. Movie-lovers may recognize similarities between this premise and the 1975 Al Pacino bank robbery film 'Dog Day Afternoon' that was directed by Sidney Lumet and that resemblance is intentional (Frazier even makes sarcastic mention of that classic film).

'Inside Man' looks inside big-city bureaucracy but without Lumet's insider's perspective; Lee breaks into the conventions of the heist movie the same way Dalton Russell violates the Wall Street institution's layout and secret chambers. 'Inside Man' is a black man's expose of the dirty-deals and secrets within our financial establishments—a discovery more meaningful than the diamonds Dalton Russell finds in a safe deposit box.

The story behind those diamonds leads to the bank's chairman Christopher Plummer and his special aide Madeline White (Jodie Foster). These two power brokers show Frazier the connection between law and crime, money and immorality. Frazier’s battles in the precinct and his cat-and-mouse game with criminals pale next to what he learns from those two lethal, well-dressed executives about it means to wield power and influence.

Working from a screenplay by Russell Gewirtz, Lee sticks to the point of his story better than ever before. He uses the conventions of genre filmmaking to express his usual ideas about social corruption but Gewirtz's plotting has forced Lee into more disciplined filmmaking--as well as some shocking race baiting. (Can't think of another movie where so many white folks got beat up the way movie blacks usually get beaten.) Using the rare device of flash-forwards when Frazier interrogates the hostages, Lee reveals New York's various ethnic rivalries and antagonisms; it’s a community formed by trauma. "Dog Day 9/11" -- so to speak.

Lee preaches in only one typical scene: when Dalton Russell questions a young black kid hostage about playing a violent video game called 'Kill Dat Nigga.' Most of 'Inside Man' shows Det. Frazier dealing with ambition and greed and corruption as everyday urban temptations. When Frazier dresses for work, he puts on a tan tailored suit and a spotless white-straw fedora (recalling Washington's white full-length coat in 'Mo' Better Blues') and struts to the scene of the crime. Middle-aged, thick-waisted Frazier is no saint; he's an icon of mack daddy fashion and corruptibility. Through him, Lee has finally hooked up with -- and shown his debt to -- the stylish and cynical message of 70s blaxploitation movies. This film's sexy final scene should make 'Superfly' green with envy.